Choices

Summary: This story takes place in Eclipse when Riley goes to Bella’s room to gather her belongings for Victoria. This is what could have happened if Bella had arrived while he was still there, and the events following. Written pre-Breaking Dawn, so that book will be disregarded here. This will include my idea of how the series would have ended.

Notes: *Written before Breaking Dawn was released, so that book will be ignored with this story.

29. Happy Surprises

Edward was sitting at his piano, looking incredible in a simple black suit. He wore a black button down shirt under it, as well as a black tie. The contrast against his alabaster skin was stunning.

As I walked slowly into the room, his eyes burned as he gazed at me. The song came to an end, and without a word, he rose from the piano bench and approached me. He never broke eye contact as he took my hand in his, and raised it to his lips, where he placed a soft, gentle kiss.

"Bella, you look exquisite. Truly, you are amazing," he murmured softly.

I hesitated for a moment, lost in his eyes. Forcing myself back to the present, I smiled shyly. "Thank you. You look incredible, too," I whispered, slightly embarrassed. "Edward, what is this all about? What are we doing?"

He smiled reassuringly. "Just a little surprise. I have to be honest - I was simply thinking it would be nice for you to have a moment of normalcy, love."

"I don’t know if I consider formal wear to be exactly normal, but I appreciate the thought," I smiled back at him.

Edward chuckled quietly. "All right, maybe ‘normal’ was the wrong choice in words, then. Perhaps ‘pleasant,’ or possibly ‘enjoyable,’ would be better descriptors - either way, I fully intend on making you relax and enjoy the evening. I thought it would be a nice break for you, Bella, after all you’ve been through.

Understanding, I nodded my head in response. He was truly incredible. He never stopped thinking of what would be best for me.

"Where are we going, then?" I asked, curiosity taking over again.

"Hmm...I’m not going to tell you just yet. You’ll see when we get there. Do you mind if I drive?" he asked. There was a hint of a smirk fighting to keep itself hidden.

"Why would you have to ask, Edward? You always drive now - it’s not like I can take the truck out around here - you know that," I said, confused.

His expression serious, he replied. "Of course I know that, Bella. Being the gentleman that I am, I would prefer to drive tonight - you know how I feel about such things. I only ask out of politeness, as it’s your car that we’re taking."

"Edward, I thought we just agreed on the fact that the truck can’t be seen?" I asked, now totally confused.

"That’s correct. Your truck has to stay in the garage. Your car, on the other hand, can go pretty much anywhere - as long as your careful not to be seen, of course." He held out his hand, and as I looked down, I saw that he was holding out a shiny new set of keys.

Gasping, I looked back into his eyes. "What have you done, Edward?"

"Why don’t you go see?" he replied, motioning toward the front door. Unable to hide his emotions anymore, a brilliant smile spread across his face.

With another wary glance at him, I slowly made my way to the front door. When I stepped out onto the front porch, I gasped again.

"Edward Cullen...what is that?!" I exclaimed, shocked.

"That would be your brand new Audi A8L W12, love. It’s unassuming, yet very fast...I think you’ll love it." He continued to smile brightly at me, as I gaped at the car in the driveway.

He had chosen midnight blue for the color, of course. The windows had an incredibly dark tint - almost darker than Carlisle’s Mercedes, if that was possible - which was most likely a further precaution to keep me hidden. It looked so sleek, so inviting...I couldn’t help myself - I crept closer to investigate further. The inside was just as beautiful, the soft ivory-colored leather seats beckoning to me. I turned back to Edward.

"Exactly how much did this cost, Edward?" I demanded. He knew that I hated him spending money on me.

"Hardly anything, Bella - it’s not important. Do you like it?" he asked, trying to side-step my question.

"How much?" I refused to let it go.

Edward walked over to me and placed his hand on my cheekbone. "Bella. The cost does not matter. As I said it was insignificant; however, since I realize you’re not going to let this go, I’ll tell you - it was about 120,000. You do realize that I could have been much, much more extravagant in my selection, don’t you?"

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. "Yes, yes I know that, but 120,000.? On a car? It’s too much. Wait - what do you mean, ‘about 120,000.?’"

Edward hesitated slightly. "Oh. Well, that was the base price. I had a few special touches added...it ended up being a little bit more. What does it matter though? Bella, please, accept this gift from me. I want you to be able to feel freedom again, while we’re still here in Forks. In order to do that, you have to remain hidden. Please don’t be upset. I just want you to be comfortable - to be happy."

I knew the cost was insignificant to Edward, I was just not used to such extravagance. Of course he was just trying to make me feel natural, to give me the freedom to come and go as I pleased. In truth, I was thrilled. Ever since riding in Alice’s Porsche, I had realized why they all loved their fast cars so much - it was exhilarating. This brought yet another question to mind - why wouldn’t he just offer to let me borrow the Volvo? Why did he decide to buy this?

Glancing at the spectacular car, I turned back to Edward. "Why? Why did you buy this - you could have just let me borrow the Volvo."

Chuckling, Edward spoke softly. "Bella. You know I can hear your thoughts - at times. You also know I can always hear Alice’s thoughts. That day you came back from shopping, it was quite clear that both of you were thinking along the same lines. Alice had heard your desire for a fast car, and you were still reminiscing about your ride in the Porsche...oh, and Rosalie was thrilled that you were finally considering upgrading, as your truck has always been a bit of an unsatisfying, ongoing project for her."

Oh. I guess that made sense. He’d heard me practically drooling over the Porsche. I couldn’t really be mad at him after knowing that. It was my own fault - I should have realized everyone would hear my silent desire for an incredible car. After everything we’d been through, this suddenly seemed quite silly - silly for me to be upset at him, for just trying to make me happy.

"Thank you, Edward. I love it, really. It’s perfect. So...can I take it for a test drive before our date?"

Grinning, he made his way to the passenger side door, tossing me the keys. As I started the engine, I couldn’t help but smile along with him; it purred.

Driving this car held no comparison to my truck. I still loved the truck, of course, but this was amazing. I had thrilled at the speed I reached on the highway. Edward had chuckled at me, happy I had accepted his gift willingly.

After arriving back home, I handed the keys over to him. "I believe you had somewhere to take me?"

Smirking, he held the passenger door open for me, waiting. I settled myself in, as he reached the driver’s side. Moments later, we were back on the road. I kept glancing out the window, wondering where we were going. Fairly quickly, I recognized the route we were taking. He was taking me to our meadow. An odd choice I thought, given our attire...

Edward parked the car in the usual place, but when I stepped out and moved toward the forest, he stepped in front of me, causing me to stop.

"Bella, although I realize you’re well capable of running just as fast as me, please, allow me to carry you?" he requested, pointedly glancing down at my dress...and shoes. Although it had stopped raining earlier that afternoon, I thought of how much mud there might still be throughout the forest.

I sighed. "Oh. All right - Alice would probably go on forever if I got mud on these anyway..." Before I could finish my sentence, Edward gently pulled me up into his arms, and took off through the forest.

As we neared the meadow, he slowed to a walk. Right at the edge of the forest, he paused. "Bella, would you mind closing your eyes?" Edward asked.

Hesitantly, I agreed. My eyes shut, I could feel us moving again. He was pushing past the final row of trees. Moments later, he stopped. He placed me carefully back on the ground, and asked me to keep my eyes closed for another minute. I heard a several clicking sounds, then the still, silent night was filled with beauty of familiar music...Clair de Lune.

"Open your eyes, Bella," Edward murmured softly.

As I slowly granted his request, I gasped, again. We were standing in the middle of the meadow, surrounded by thousands of white, twinkling lights, which were strewn all through the trees around the perimeter of the meadow, as well as through the few lower growing plants in the field itself. The surface beneath my feet was strangely solid - not the soft, familiar grass of the meadow. It was a large, shiny, wooden square - a dance floor. The perimeter of it was surrounded by the soft glow of tea light candles. Nearby, on the rocks that surrounded the creek, more lit candles added to the atmosphere, accompanied by vases filled with lavender and freesias. It looked as if there were stars everywhere, shining brilliantly, while still allowing for the soft glow of moonlight. A small cd player was responsible for the music, which echoed hauntingly in the still night.

Suddenly, Edward was pulling me to him, into his embrace.

"Edward...what’s all of this for? How on earth..." I trailed off, not even wanting to know how he had managed to get enough power to all of those strands of lights.

"Bella, I simply wanted to take you dancing. Due to our unique - situation, this seemed to be the most reasonable solution," he explained, grinning crookedly.

"Dancing?" I asked, still in shock.

Edward chuckled softly. "Yes, Bella, dancing. We had such a lovely time at prom, and now you don’t have that burdensome cast on...not to mention much, much more balance," he said softly.

He began to slowly waltz, leading me to follow him. He was right - this was much more natural to me now. We danced for hours, happily twirling and spinning, with me never more grateful for my newfound grace. Eventually, we slowed, knowing that we had to leave, as dawn was breaking.

Pressing his forehead against mine, he gazed steadily into my eyes. "I hope you enjoyed yourself tonight, Bella. It has been truly special for me, but we must be going now."

"It’s been amazing, Edward...thank you. Wait - what do we do about all of this?" I asked, motioning to the beautiful lights all around us.

"Alice and Rosalie are waiting nearby to clean it up," he replied, grinning. Quickly, he extinguished the lit candles before scooping me back up into his arms. In no time at all, we were back to my new car, and then back at home.

A few hours later, my mind was still reeling over our beautiful night in the meadow, and the extent Edward had gone to so that I would simply feel normal again. We were lazily relaxing on the bed in our room. He rolled over towards me, quickly stealing my book away, and tossed it aside.

"Well...you know we can’t stay here forever. We’ll have to leave, eventually, if you ever want to be able to move about in public again - you can’t very well go into town here. There’s no immediate rush, as we’re being cautious to be discreet, but we will need to move on soon, now that things have been taken care of," Edward finished, waiting for me to respond.

I thought for a second. "Where will we go?’ I asked, not sure what else to say. This was all I knew, except for Charlie or Renee’s homes, which were clearly not an option to me anymore.

Edward smiled. "Well, you have plenty of choices ahead of you, since you have no aversion to being around humans. We were all thinking we would maybe head east. Of course the family plans on staying together. When we get there, you will have plenty of options - since you didn’t actually get to finish high school, we can choose to enroll as seniors, if you would like. If not, we can skip it and choose to enroll as freshmen at Dartmouth - your choice. I have the paper work for either decision," he grinned mischievously at me. He then paused, seeming to reconsider. "If you’d rather do neither, that’s fine as well. You are able to do whatever you want to, Bella. Again, there’s no rush; I’m just bringing it up so that you have some time to think about it."

I glanced at Edward, feeling slightly overwhelmed. He was giving me the world - all I had to do was voice my opinion. It was a bit much, especially since I’d been thinking of only one thing lately, and it had nothing to do with high schools or colleges. I had almost been expecting something else to happen last night in the meadow, but it hadn’t.

"Edward, what if something else is much more important to me - what if I can’t even bother my mind with the concerns of high school or college right now?" I questioned, casting my eyes downward.

Edward hesitated, suddenly forlorn, reaching out to touch my cheek. "I am so sorry, Bella. I should have never been so inconsiderate. If you’re still not ready to move on, we can take some more time."

"Edward, stop!" I exclaimed, rolling myself into him. I could only imagine that he thought I was regressing back into my depression, which I was not. "You’re misunderstanding me, completely." Staring into his eyes, I saw my future.

"Edward, I love you. I am with you for eternity now, unless you decide you don’t want me..." I trailed off, questioningly.

"Not possible," Edward growled.

"Good. That’s always nice to hear," I whispered in his ear, as I smiled shyly.

Edward spoke again, quietly. " So you’re not ready to go back to school? I want you to be happy; please tell me what you want to do. We have many resources amongst us - if you never want to go back, there’s no need - we have everything we need here, and whatever we don’t have would be easy enough to get..." he trailed off, watching me uncertainly.